Chapter
5 – Hollowed to Hallowed
“No, I don’t think they did
anything. Their clothes aren’t off.”
“Are you sure? They could’ve put
them back on after so we wouldn’t see them naked the day after.”
“Nah, that’s not how it works.
Trust your old man on this.”
It takes me a second to realize
what’s going on. When I come to my senses, I see and hear my dad and sis
talking.
“Did you guys do it?” Alex asks.
“What? No, she just wanted someone
to hold her,” I say.
“Virgin! Loser!”
“How could you not take the obvious
sign and just give the girl what she wants?! Your mother was pregnant with you
by this time,” dad says before I hit him over the head with my pillow.
I then throw the pillow at the two
while saying, “Get lost you perverts, and stop snooping on us!”
Marina begins to wake up because of
all the noise.
She asks, “Hm, is everything okay?”
“Yeah. Everything’s fine,” I
answer.
“Ok. Good…Ah!” she says while
getting up.
“What?”
“I didn’t mean to fall asleep on
you. I was too comfortable-no, I mean sleepy. Yeah, sleepy. Royalty can’t sleep
with non-royalty. Why didn’t you wake me up?!”
“Because I didn’t want to bother
you while you were comfortable on me, and so what? Your guards will report you to
the other exorcists for pre-martial cuddling?”
“Cuddling…” I can hear Marina whisper
to herself while turning redder than she already she. She shakes her head then
says, “I don’t know if they will. I told them to go out exorcising the town for
us, so I don’t know how much they saw.”
“They would’ve probably said something
or stopped it if they had a problem with it.”
“Are you sure?”
“Why wouldn’t they do anything if
it’s so wrong?”
“I guess you’re right. I’ll talk to
them. Today is a special day for us.”
“Because we have the week off of
school?”
“Because the exorcists have a special
assignment for us. If we complete this, then the Vatican will let you get
whatever job you want and pay for your college if you want to get into it. You’ll
also be allowed to be an exorcist as a paid career if you don’t mind a bit of
traveling within reasonable limits of your home.”
“Call your guards and let’s get to
it. I’ll go help set up breakfast and tell my dad and Alex about it. Oh, and
will they be safe without me here?”
“Yes, they will. I’ll have local
exorcists protect them while we’re gone.”
“Thank you.”
My family doesn’t have a problem
with me going away for the week and thankfully doesn’t ask for specifics though
they still consider the things I’ll do with Marina, the perverts. After talking
to her guards, Marina tells me that the exorcists will soon send an inconspicuous
bus to the house that will drive us to the location of our assignment. We are
going to exorcise a nearby town of non-Catholics that have brought demons to
their small town through their heresy. I didn’t think that being non-Catholic
would do this, but when we reach the town, our bus is tackled by a large demon
that slams us into the side of a building. A small horde of demons ambushes us
and we lose a man as a result.
“What a start to my school break,”
I say.
“It’ll be worth it once you
complete this assignment, boy. Blame the aggressiveness of the demons on your
high exorcism success in your town. They’re just as aggressive in the
surrounding area because of it. They’re just a bunch of weaklings that don’t
like losing so much. Why don’t you go with the prayer group to show them your devotion
with the princess?” the leader of the group says.
“Yes, sir.”
While listening to the leader of
the prayer group instruct us in which areas of the town to focus on, Marina gets
close to me and whispers, “I think someone knows that we didn’t exorcise in a
mostly peaceful way, which is why we’re in the prayer group. They’re testing us
to see what we’ll do.”
“Then let’s not disappoint them.”
The prayer and the combat groups
move out while the leaders and coordinators sit on the sidelines to direct the
exorcists. We come across the non-Catholic exorcists in this town who appear to
be using their own prayers and weapons against the demons. They don’t seem to
see us or the demons they’re fighting so it looks like they don’t have the same
abilities we do. On the sidelines, we pray for them though it seems like we’re
just letting them die. Our prayers complete as the last one dies along with the
last demon in this area being exorcised.
I ask a nearby exorcist, “Don’t you
think we should’ve drawn our weapons to help them?”
“No, because we’re supposed to
exorcise through prayer.”
“I know that, genius. I was
wondering why we couldn’t do more.”
“Why should we? Do you think it was
a coincidence that the heretics died as the last demon was being banished?”
“I guess not?”
“Besides, if God wanted them alive,
then He wouldn’t let these demons loose upon this town and He wouldn’t let them
die before the prayer ended.”
But what if we’re supposed to be
the people that we’re sent to save them? Prayer isn’t the only effective weapon
we exorcists have and I’m not talking about holy water. I want to say this so
badly and do something more, but all I can do is chant and pray. It’s effective
don’t get me wrong. I just don’t like feeling so helpless while I watch people
fight and die. It’s like when my mom defended me and lost her life in the
process. This also reminds me to think about my family back home and how they’re
doing.
Three days of fighting and praying
pass by as if they were all one day until the final day where we come across
the final demon in the town. It looks very similar to the statues of Christ
that I’ve seen, but it has holes in its body and face. Prayer groups surround the
outer perimeter while the combat groups, like the one Marina and I are in, are put in the center.
“Today, we banish another
anti-Christ and save souls as a result. This victory belongs to God, and us, His
faithful tools of justice!” a priest says as the attack begins.
We cut at the demon’s limbs and chain
him down as the prayer group does their work. It’s easier than I thought to
take down a demon with the face of God. I guess all that training, fighting,
and praying is finally paying off.
The demon looks at me and says, “They’re
dead, Alessio. Your father and sister. They’re burning in Hell with your mother
and the rest of your family. The exorcists betrayed you.”
It then disappears and the exorcists
look at me since I’m the only one it’s said anything to.
“What? You think I believed it?” I say
to try to ease their minds.
A priest ends up talking to me
about my thoughts and I tell him the same thing I said to everyone else and he
accepts it. Marina approaches me later when we’re apart from everyone else as
they celebrate our victory.
“What’s up?” I ask her.
“Oh, nothing. You did great work over
these past couple of days.”
“I couldn’t have done without you
and the rest of the exorcists. So, I’ll probably choose to be a full-time
exorcist.”
“You’re not just saying that to get
out of school, are you?”
“No, I think it’s my calling. Just
like how it was my mom’s.”
“That means you’ll have to stay
with me more and you’ll continue to be my student and the princess that you’ll
have to take orders from.”
“I’ll take that punishment to follow
my calling.”
“Punishment?! You think it’s
punishment?!”
“No, no. I’m kidding. In fact, I’m relieved
that’s the case.”
“You should be honored. Not every team
of exorcists has a team member who is royalty.”
“I guess I am honored, princess.”
We enjoy our short victory
celebration before exorcising the surrounding area and making sure that the
area beyond that is demon-free for the next few days. After that, I am rewarded
with an exorcist’s badge to show my official status as an exorcist and a
blessing from the priest to enhance my abilities during a ceremony along with
other beginner exorcists. No one died on this assignment though there were many
injuries. I can’t help but feel that this was only possible because we let the
non-Catholics face the punishment of their heresy. I don’t even think we properly
buried their bodies. In fact, I overheard a couple of the leaders saying that
they would just throw their bodies in a mass grave. It’s all a shame really.
Finally, after what feels like half
a month, I am brought back home with Marina. Looking at my house after so short
a break gives me nostalgia as if I left it for years and just realized I was
homesick. We enter the house to find it strangely quiet.
“Dad! Alex! I’m home,” I say.
My first instinct is to expect some
kind of prank from them; however, something doesn’t feel right. A smell then confirms
my bad feelings as I follow it to…
“Oh my-! Guards!” Marina says. “Guards?
Gale, Jonah, why aren’t you heeding my call?”
The sound of two people approaching
us comes from behind me.
“Those two are suffering their
penance for allowing you two to do the things that you did such as using
violence as your first option against the demons and your ‘close’ relationship.
You should’ve known to get so close to the peasant exorcist, Princess Marina,”
one of them says.
“Tell me why you didn’t protect
Alessio’s family!”
“Why should we protect the hollow
that are drenched in sin? His mother was one of the whores and traitors of the
exorcists that slept with as many people as she could to give generations of
non-exorcists the abilities to see the spiritual, which leads to most people
being tricked by demons who pretend to be holy spirits and the further hollowfication
of the world. His sister inherited her mother’s demons and was a slave to lust
while his father was much the same, but all shared the same sin of pride. His
family is one that has most of its members burning in Hell according to the mystics.”
“You! You bastards!” I say as I draw
my sword.
The two exorcists disappear into a
singular body. This body belongs to a demon that has my face, horns that look
like a crown on his face, and armor made out of its victims. Within the armor,
I see the faces of my mom, dad, and sister along with the exorcists that I saw.
“I have to say that I’m glad you
killed the demons that let you kill my family, but I’m also beyond pissed that
you denied me the pleasure of doing it myself and the fact that you killed my
family,” I say to it.
“What are you going to do?” it says
in a distorted version of my voice, “I know you, Alessio. You want revenge, but
revenge will not bring back your family.”
“Get out of here! I banish you in
the name of-”
Marina is restrained by six arms that
come out of the demon’s snake-like body as it enters the room.
“Silence. Alessio, she is guilty in
the death of your family as much as the guards she left to protect them since she
could’ve known their bias against those who whored themselves out so that others
could see the spiritual if she wasn’t so lazy. Her resources as a princess
allow it.”
“Marina? Is that true?”
Marina shakes her head to confirm
it. I drop my sword, which makes it disappear. I don’t know what to do anymore
as my mind becomes hazy because of grief, betrayal, hatred, and more.
“The exorcists are a prideful bunch
of hypocrites none of which you can trust.”
“I don’t care about them! All I
care about is my family!”
“What are you going to do? You have
no family left.”
“I’ll go to Hell itself to take
them out!”
“Ha! What a foolish notion. Here,
feel the space around my hand if you want a taste of what you’ll find in Hell.”
I do as the demon says and feel a
pain so excruciating that I immediately fall down and go deaf for about ten
seconds. Once I regain my hearing, I realize that I was screaming my throat
out. That was hotter than anything I could imagine. My entire body feels like
it’s sweating, my hand feels like it’s on fire, and I can’t even stand back up.
If I had felt that pain for even half a second, I probably would’ve died.
“Look at how you fall so easily.
You only put your hand over the fires of Hell like putting your hand over a
fire. You cannot even handle the smoke of Hell. You have the same pride as your
mother,” the demon says, “She thought it was right of her to whore herself out
to an uncountable number of men to allow future generations to see the spiritual.
She then thought it would be good for her to settle down with your father and use
him to produce many children with him as if he were a sperm bank. Her womb
closed shortly after. After which, when I was about to kill you the first time
we met, she thought that she could redeem her soul by sacrificing herself for
you.
She thought that her selfless
action would get her to Heaven, but in reality, it was another sin that only
sent her further to Hell since it wasn’t a humble act of repentance. It was a
sinful act of pride as she didn’t repent for her sins but doubled down on them
and used her act of sacrifice as a bargaining chip that God didn’t accept.”
Why are you telling me all this?
“If you’re thinking to yourself why
I’m telling you all this, then here’s your answer. I’m telling you this so you should
abandon the exorcists. Join me, follow my ways, and I’ll give you and
generations of your family a comfortable place in Hell. I’ll give you riches
that generations of your family will enjoy until the end of the world. It’s a
good deal, is it not?”
I don’t know. I don’t know what to
think anymore. I give up. My body feels like it’s eating itself alive as what
feels like holes are forming in my chest, my head, legs, and arms.
“I see that my words are getting
through to you. I’ll allow you to leave and think on it if you let me have this
princess. I need another pawn in the ranks of the royal exorcists.”
Something within me allows me to
stand as if the demon is giving me the strength to make a decision.
“Give her a fighting chance,” I say.
“That’s a good idea. When I beat and
break her, her mind will have more than enough room for my influence. Thank you
for the idea,” the demon says as it lets her go.
“No, don’t leave me, Alessio! I’m
sorry for-”
“I don’t care like how you didn’t
care to think about my family’s safety.”
“She’s always been a lazy one,
Alessio. It’s why she’s had to always have her guards, why you had to help her
on her first assignment, and why you’ve been her sword that’s done all the heavy
lifting for her.”
“Shut up!” she says to it.
“Prove me wrong then, princess.”
The demon allows me to leave while
keeping Marina away from me. Outside my house, I have no clue where I want to
go so I wander the streets of the town. My family was everything to me and I
let them down. If I at least convinced them to go to confession, then they would’ve
been in Heaven or Purgatory before Heaven at the very least. I’m a failure of a
son, a brother, and a person. What kind of person lets their loved one’s soul
rot? What kind of person lets themselves be willfully ignorant to the
consequences of eternity? I know the answer. I’m that kind of person.
An idiot who thought too highly of
himself and those he loved just because we were who we were. Another
consequence of my idiocy arrives as demons begin to surround me. I’m not sure
if they’re here to kill me or if they’re trying to make me take the other
demon's offer. Right now, I hope it’s death, however, they’re all killed by a rain
of icicles that banish them all. Of all the people to save me, Magnus approaches
me in a hurry.
“Alessio! Are you okay? My Ombra
contacts told me that you got back from your assignment. I was going to warn
you about the guards that Marina placed to guard your family,” he says while I
respond with silence. “Again, are you okay? What happened to you? Why didn’t
you try to defend yourself? Your family isn’t already…”
“You should’ve just let them kill
me, you idiot! I’m worthless now. I shouldn’t have trusted Marina to get the
right guards for my family. I should’ve helped my family clean their souls so
they would’ve had a chance at Heaven! I’m not sure who’s the worse idiot.
Probably me.”
“I’d agree with you at a different
time, but not right now. You still have time to save your soul.”
“It’s worthless right now. I’ve committed
a mortal sin by giving up and letting the demon who killed my family go after
Marina. I’m hollow now. There’s no hope for me.”
Magnus smacks me.
“Just because you horribly messed
up doesn’t mean that you don’t have a second chance! You’re still alive, which
means that God still wants you to live. You still have people that care about
you here besides those in Heaven. I’m sure Marina cares about you.”
“But she-”
“What she did was a mistake due to
her laziness. We all sin horribly. I admit that as one of the worst sinners
that I know. Do you really want to hate her?”
“No, but she’s probably dead right
now.”
“We don’t know that for sure. Come
on, we have to hurry to save her!”
“What made you want to help me?”
“It’s just because I don’t want to be
in debt to you. Don’t think that we’re friends or anything because of this.”
“Heh, of course not. Thank you though.”
“Whatever.”
Magnus and I go back to my house to
find the demon shoving Marina into the trash in the back before throwing her
out. Her clothes are ripped and dirty. She cries doesn’t try to stand up as she
seems like she’s given up. Before the demon can grab her again, I get in between
them.
“Alessio, do you like how I’ve
punished this pathetic princess? It’s some of my best work. Have you come to
make your decision or take your part in her punishment?” it says.
“Alessio…” Marina says as she looks
up at me.
“You really need to stop needing to
be saving. It’s not becoming of royalty, is it princess?” I say to Marina
before looking at the demon with my sword drawn, “I’m not taking your offer,
demon.”
I then begin to fight the demon
while keeping my eyes on its face rather than looking at the faces of my family
on its body. It tries to get me to look at them as it manifests their eyeless
faces on its arms.
“A foolish notion. I thought you
were smarter than that,” it says while pulling out a mirror and showing me my
reflection, “Look at yourself. A handsome man can do better than this. You are
a living saint in the flesh. Perfect without needing grace.”
I slash the mirror in two.
“I’m a damn fool that needs saving.”
“Trying to hit me is pointless even
when you’re trying to rely on your God.”
The demon then manifests blades in
its hands and in the faces of my family as it goes on the offensive. This slithery
scum is hard to hit and when I think I’m about to cut it, a blade comes out of
the slits in its body to deflect my attack.
“I could use your help at any time, Magnus!” I call out.
“I’m trying! My blessing isn’t
manifesting at all! All I can do is pray!” he answers back.
“You better pray that I lose
because I’m going to kick your face in when this is done!”
“Cease this useless fight, Alessio.
Embrace the same crown that I wear. You cannot defeat your own pride. You’re
just as hollow as I am,” the demon says as it continues to back me into a
corner.
“Can’t defeat my own pride, huh?” I
say as I get some distance and get a crazy idea, “I crucify my pride. I crucify
myself first.”
I stab my chest with my sword, which
in turn stabs the demon through the chest and banishes it. A weird feeling then
overcomes me as the places where I felt myself hollow fills.
“How did you know that would work?”
Magnus asks.
“I didn’t. An idea suddenly came to
me and I followed it. Call it a sudden case of divine inspiration,” I say.
“I’d call it a sudden case of stupidity
if I didn’t already know that it was a way that exorcists got rid of their
personal demons.”
“Oh, it was? That’s good to know.”
“Um, Alessio? I think you’re
forgetting someone.”
“No, it’s fine,” Marina says, “I
deserve to be forgotten after what my laziness did to you.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. I
forgive you.”
“What? You do?”
“I do. A friend of mine saved me
and gave me the smack in the face that I needed to realize what I needed to do.”
“I’m not your friend,” Magnus
notes.
“Yeah, sure, but can you forgive me
for abandoning you, Marina?”
“I do,” she says as runs up to me
and hugs me as she cries on my shoulder.
“Okay, okay, cougar. At least
shower first before getting near me.” That joke gets me punched in the gut. “I wasn’t
actually serious.”
“You still deserved it,” both
Marina and Magus say before we laugh.
Magnus helps Marina and I arrange a
funeral for my dad and sister. When I report what happened, some exorcists sent
their sympathies while others didn’t care as the death of my unfaithful family is nothing more than justice in their eyes.
“I’ll fix their asses,” I say aloud
while reading their letter.
Marina puts her arms around me and her
head on my shoulder while saying, “You can’t do anything as you are. We have to
rely on Magnus and moving up the ranks of the exorcists if you want to actually
fix the problems with them.”
“I’ll find a way. What are you
doing anyway?”
“Well, I thought that since I don’t
have any guards watching me I could…uh…be more comfortable with you.”
She kisses me on the lips for a
good few seconds that feels like it lasts longer than it actually did.
“I, ah…insert some cougar joke. I
got nothing,” I say while not knowing what to say before getting hit in the
gut.
“We-well, you better be thankful! Not
every royal would fall for a peasant.”
“If the exorcists know that we’re
together, then they’ll probably excommunicate us from their ranks.”
“Let them do what they want. There’s
nothing wrong with us being together. In fact, it’s right that we are.”
“It is, and I’ll make them see
their error of their ways. For now, shall we go out hunting?”
“Let’s.”
Marina and I kiss one last time before
going out to exorcise the town of demons. Soon, the exorcists will be my next
target to cleanse, but for now, I’ll grow in strength and virtue to prepare
myself for that moment. I’ll make sure to make the most of this God-given second
chance and become a better person than the punk that I was before.
The End
